Yeah, video game "violence" appeals to me. My virtual shooting sprees, vehicular manslaughter on the order of thousands, ramming racing opponents to keep myself from overshooting a corner, kicking babies and taking candy from dogs.... All can make a shitty day more bearable or a good one better. And NO ONE has EVER been hurt by it. Of course I only started 35 or so years ago, so who knows.

Edit: Blowing a comment on LCD out of proportion and going off on an unwarranted rant brought to you by a bad week and a skipped breakfast.

I've got a new hero. What did he mean by "in cooperation with the cable companies"? Is he saying he invented internet gaming?

No, he claims to have invented streaming video games directly into the console, like what Steam does. It was not through the Internet, but via the CableTV signal.

The Intellivision, for example, had such a service in 1981. It was a joint effort between Mattel and General Instruments. Considering that Baer promoted the use of GI chips, such as the processor and speech synthesizer on the Odessey2, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he had a hand at this feature.

The Internet is good and all that, but yes, we had on-demand video games back when dinosaurs roamed the 8-bit scene--although the Intellvision was really a 16-bit system, but that's an argument for another day.

" ... the bulk of the gaming community has largely forgotten about him."

Bulk of the gaming community under 30 years of age, that is. I wonder why so many who write tech these days assume that everyone was born when they were. Believe it or not, there are whole generations of people alive and kicking for whom things that happened in the 70's and 80's aren't archeological.

Thanks for doing the profile and interview; always good to hear people remembering Mr. Baer's contributions to video games (versus most people thinking Nolan Bushnell invented them). At first I merely glanced at the article title and for a second thought it was an announcement of his death; fortunately, not the case.

" ... the bulk of the gaming community has largely forgotten about him."

Bulk of the gaming community under 30 years of age, that is. I wonder why so many who write tech these days assume that everyone was born when they were. Believe it or not, there are whole generations of people alive and kicking for whom things that happened in the 70's and 80's aren't archeological.

I'm sure that the bulk of the gaming community under 30 years IS the bulk of the gaming community. Most people 30 or over tend to have more important things to do with their time - i.e., raise kids to do their gaming for them.

" ... the bulk of the gaming community has largely forgotten about him."

Bulk of the gaming community under 30 years of age, that is. I wonder why so many who write tech these days assume that everyone was born when they were. Believe it or not, there are whole generations of people alive and kicking for whom things that happened in the 70's and 80's aren't archeological.

I'm sure that the bulk of the gaming community under 30 years IS the bulk of the gaming community. Most people 30 or over tend to have more important things to do with their time - i.e., raise kids to do their gaming for them.

"Despite railing against some of the trends in modern gaming, Baer also pushed back against some cultural commentators that seem to think video games are still for kids. These critics bristle at the idea of adult themes and sexual content in the medium. “The majority of video game players are now 35 and over,” Baer said. “The criticisms come mostly from a generation that never played a video game in their life.”"

-taken from the article

I'm 33, and I have been gaming since I was old enough to and will continue to until my heart no longer beats. There's very little more important to do with one's time than leisure- with the exception of earning the money that pays for leisure.

" ... the bulk of the gaming community has largely forgotten about him."

Bulk of the gaming community under 30 years of age, that is. I wonder why so many who write tech these days assume that everyone was born when they were. Believe it or not, there are whole generations of people alive and kicking for whom things that happened in the 70's and 80's aren't archeological.

I'm sure that the bulk of the gaming community under 30 years IS the bulk of the gaming community. Most people 30 or over tend to have more important things to do with their time - i.e., raise kids to do their gaming for them.

So, with all due respect, which one are you: a clueless twenty-something or a sad and tired 30+ ?

I'm fast approaching 30 and I couldn't picture my life without gaming, and I don't see it changing in the near future.

" ... the bulk of the gaming community has largely forgotten about him."

Bulk of the gaming community under 30 years of age, that is. I wonder why so many who write tech these days assume that everyone was born when they were. Believe it or not, there are whole generations of people alive and kicking for whom things that happened in the 70's and 80's aren't archeological.

Shhh! We're trying to forget Disco.

Wow, I use to have a Magnavox complete with all the accessories. Now all one needs is an "obsolete" TV to play it.

" ... the bulk of the gaming community has largely forgotten about him."

Bulk of the gaming community under 30 years of age, that is. I wonder why so many who write tech these days assume that everyone was born when they were. Believe it or not, there are whole generations of people alive and kicking for whom things that happened in the 70's and 80's aren't archeological.

I'm sure that the bulk of the gaming community under 30 years IS the bulk of the gaming community. Most people 30 or over tend to have more important things to do with their time - i.e., raise kids to do their gaming for them.

So, with all due respect, which one are you: a clueless twenty-something or a sad and tired 30+ ?

I'm fast approaching 30 and I couldn't picture my life without gaming, and I don't see it changing in the near future.

I'm one of those people 30 or over that tend to have more important things to do with their time - i.e., raise kids to do their gaming forwith them, thank you very much.

" ... the bulk of the gaming community has largely forgotten about him."

Bulk of the gaming community under 30 years of age, that is. I wonder why so many who write tech these days assume that everyone was born when they were. Believe it or not, there are whole generations of people alive and kicking for whom things that happened in the 70's and 80's aren't archeological.

I'm sure that the bulk of the gaming community under 30 years IS the bulk of the gaming community. Most people 30 or over tend to have more important things to do with their time - i.e., raise kids to do their gaming for them.

So, with all due respect, which one are you: a clueless twenty-something or a sad and tired 30+ ?

I'm fast approaching 30 and I couldn't picture my life without gaming, and I don't see it changing in the near future.

Why are people on Ars using hearsay, majority opinion, and insults to make their point, when it takes two seconds to look up the actual research? The bulk of gamers are at least under 26 according to the ESA, with the average age being 30.

I've got a new hero. What did he mean by "in cooperation with the cable companies"? Is he saying he invented internet gaming?

No, he claims to have invented streaming video games directly into the console, like what Steam does. It was not through the Internet, but via the CableTV signal.

No, that's not it at all. None of these games were coded, there was no microprocessor running games. They were all made from discrete logic. There's nothing code wise to stream. What Ralph is talking about was literally having live video streamed as part of the game to overcome graphics limitations of the time. So for example actual video of a tennis field being piped from the cable company, which the Odyssey would then display it's graphics over. Ralph actually did a lot of pioneering work in the usage of live video, digitization, and more in relation to games. For example, his technology was used in the later Journey Escape arcade game to provide the digitized faces of the band used in the game - which was originally done with a live camera on the unit that would take a photo of the player and use their face in the game).

Bushnell and Ted Dabney cofounded Atari. Bushnell didn't "later" become president; he started out that way.

"Despite losing a lawsuit to Magnavox and Sanders for patent infringement, Atari went on..."

Atari didn't lose; they settled. Regarding the settlement, Bushnell is on record saying, "I settled with him [Baer] for what we considered a junk royalty. I think we settled the lawsuit for what was then like 0.06% of our sales but it was a paid-up license. We were in the process of raising money at the time and it was important for us to get that off the table because people get concerned about patent lawsuits. So, it was a business decision to settle. It had nothing to do with the merits of the case. In fact, we settled for less cash than it would have cost us to beat the suit that year."

“'In view of the fact that the President of the United States of America hung the National Medal of Technology around my neck in a White House ceremony in 2006, and in view of my having been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, I really don't feel neglected.' —Ralph Baer”

For someone digging at someone else's legacy, Baer is quite smug about his bling! If Baer is the "father of video games," he's an absentee one at best. Bushnell is the father of the video-game industry and he's still around, working directly with developers and other companies around the world on innovative projects, giving keynotes, and looking to the future, not the past.

Why are people on Ars using hearsay, majority opinion, and insults to make their point, when it takes two seconds to look up the actual research? The bulk of gamers are at least under 26 according to the ESA, with the average age being 30.

Thanks for the great article, nothing jumped out as new from my past reading about Baer, but he is an important and interesting figure hopefully more will become familiar with.

And now for the "but..."

The Odyssey2 was in no way more expensive or complex than the Intellivision. While the Odyssey2 wasn't included in the recent article about historical console launch pricing, I waited for the Intellivision's release, passing up on the 2600 and Magnavox's option. Perhaps because of the keyboard the Odyssey2 had a higher price at some point in its lifecycle, but at the time of launch the Intellivision was the most expensive console and its 16-bit/8-bit hybrid system and extra graphics capabilities (smooth scrolling, more sprites, hardware sprite animation) were well ahead of all the ciurrent systems of the time.

Bushnell and Ted Dabney cofounded Atari. Bushnell didn't "later" become president; he started out that way.

No, there was no president or chief position at that time, they were simply partners. The position of president wasn't created until after Ted was forced out of the partnership in 1973. And even then, he held it only briefly, installing his relative Wakefield as President of Atari that Summer '73 with Nolan just remaining as Chairman of the board. After Wakefield was forced out about a year later, the president was Joe Keenan, who remained as such until early '79.

Quote:

Atari didn't lose; they settled. Regarding the settlement, Bushnell is on record saying, "I settled with him [Baer] for what we considered a junk royalty. I think we settled the lawsuit for what was then like 0.06% of our sales but it was a paid-up license. We were in the process of raising money at the time and it was important for us to get that off the table because people get concerned about patent lawsuits. So, it was a business decision to settle. It had nothing to do with the merits of the case. In fact, we settled for less cash than it would have cost us to beat the suit that year."

That's not the case as far as the settlement, it was anything but a junk settlement, costing them quite a bit of money (enough that they had to split it up into multiple payments) and giving Magnavox free access to their patents and products for the next year. We have the full settlement details in the book, including a photo of one of the pages laying things out. Likewise, he didn't settle with Baer, Baer didn't sue him. Nolan tends to downplay things or represent them in a way that just didn't happen. Likewise, they settled because a) they were being forced to by the pending deal with Warner, and b) They were indeed loosing - as did everyone else who remained in the suit. In fact, at the close of the suit, the judge made special mention on the lack of merit of Nolan and Atari's position even though they were no longer in the suit.

Umm... In May 1972 Atari didn't exist so he wasn't president. "Later", Atari did exist, and Bushnell was president. How is the quote wrong?

The phrasing suggests that Bushnell was just a professional manager who joined Atari.

"Atari" existed before May 1972 as Syzygy Engineering. New companies aren't started the day they're incorporated. Entrepreneurs usually work on their companies for awhile before reaching the incorporation stage. Atari was the name that the Bushnell-Dabney duo assumed when the company was incorporated. Pong was in development during the summer of 1971.

No, there was no president or chief position at that time, they were simply partners. The position of president wasn't created until after Ted was forced out of the partnership in 1973.

You're talking about titles and positions; I'm talking about roles and responsibilities. In any new company started by two or more people, everyone shares responsibilities but not equally. The de facto chief executive of a startup, when not explicitly identified, is the individual who has P&L responsibility. In the early days of Atari, that was Bushnell, who was ultimately responsible for sales and marketing.

That's not the case as far as the settlement, it was anything but a junk settlement, costing them quite a bit of money (enough that they had to split it up into multiple payments) and giving Magnavox free access to their patents and products for the next year.

Consider the context. Within the first year of operating, Atari had pulled in $3.5 million. That's around $19.5 million today. Most startups operate at a loss for five years before breaking even. By the time Bushnell left Atari in 1978, the company was employing 15-20,000 people and had sold to Warner. Four years after Bushnell's departure, Atari was bringing in $2 billion annually, or $4.8 billion today. The settlement was peanuts relative to the opportunity.

Did Baer and Magnavox come out okay as a result of the settlement? Sure. But Baer did nothing of note in the video-game industry for the next 37 years and Magnavox protected their investment in the 3DO of the day before succumbing to a hostile takeover by Philips.

A great and incredible man, I do hope he realizes that while we all play shooters, they are far from the most talked or remembered game for most of us. Even the memories of shooters themselves are rarely about the violence. I don't particularly remember the gore of Goldeneye, I remember playing with friends.

While its great what he did, after reading his book "Videogames In the Beginning" its hard to want to listen to him.

It reads like he feels himself a god, smarter then anyone ever alive and believes that if it weren't for him, we'd still be in the stone age. He tries to make it seem like nothing in technology and computers would have moved forward if it weren't for him. Though after reading his book and seeing how every little thing he felt needed to be patented to wield as a blunt weapon for maximum profits later in life does explain that patent mess we have in the modern world.

If it weren't for him and his "shining" example of patenting things that just didn't need to be patented then things might not be the mess they are today.

Bushnell and Ted Dabney cofounded Atari. Bushnell didn't "later" become president; he started out that way.

"Despite losing a lawsuit to Magnavox and Sanders for patent infringement, Atari went on..."

Atari didn't lose; they settled. Regarding the settlement, Bushnell is on record saying, "I settled with him [Baer] for what we considered a junk royalty. I think we settled the lawsuit for what was then like 0.06% of our sales but it was a paid-up license. We were in the process of raising money at the time and it was important for us to get that off the table because people get concerned about patent lawsuits. So, it was a business decision to settle. It had nothing to do with the merits of the case. In fact, we settled for less cash than it would have cost us to beat the suit that year."

“'In view of the fact that the President of the United States of America hung the National Medal of Technology around my neck in a White House ceremony in 2006, and in view of my having been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, I really don't feel neglected.' —Ralph Baer”

For someone digging at someone else's legacy, Baer is quite smug about his bling! If Baer is the "father of video games," he's an absentee one at best. Bushnell is the father of the video-game industry and he's still around, working directly with developers and other companies around the world on innovative projects, giving keynotes, and looking to the future, not the past.

Thank you for pulling your head out of Bushnell's ass long enough to come here and share you thoughts.

Like a lot of things we enjoy today, the origins of video games can be traced back to the efforts of more than one individual. Let's give them all a hearty thank you and well done.

While its great what he did, after reading his book "Videogames In the Beginning" its hard to want to listen to him.

It reads like he feels himself a god, smarter then anyone ever alive and believes that if it weren't for him, we'd still be in the stone age. He tries to make it seem like nothing in technology and computers would have moved forward if it weren't for him. Though after reading his book and seeing how every little thing he felt needed to be patented to wield as a blunt weapon for maximum profits later in life does explain that patent mess we have in the modern world.

If it weren't for him and his "shining" example of patenting things that just didn't need to be patented then things might not be the mess they are today.

He patented *hardware*, not "business practices' or "look-and-feel".

Moreover, he's a WWII vet who was the US Army's leading expert on German handguns. He shipped back 3 *tons* of guns. All this while in his 20s. He probably thought those other guys trying to assert patent rights were young punks.

The bulk of gamers are at least under 26 according to the ESA, with the average age being 30.

Actually, according to the piece you linked to, the average age depends entirely on which question the ESA used -- or how you define "gamer":"Interestingly, last year's survey reported that the average age in 2011 was 37. ... In the past, the ESA screened its thousands of survey-takers by asking if they had a game console or a PC for playing games. The newest survey is more general; asking whether people 'play computer or video games.' So the new survey also includes people who play games on phones, tablets, and, presumably, in arcades."The results are also skewed by whether social/casual gamers from the different age groups are likely to include those as "video games" or not. None of the over-35s I know that are into casual titles consider themselves as playing video games, but from what I've heard, that belief isn't remotely as common in the under-25 crowd, and even less in the under-20s.

Last year's survey (from the same link) has the average age at 37. They broadened the definition of a gamer this year (last year was PC/console gamer, this year includes phones/tablets/etc.).

Also, frequent game buyers (people who buy more games) had an average age of 35.

Quote:

Actually, according to the piece you linked to, the average age depends entirely on which question the ESA used -- or how you define "gamer"

Both of you seemed to forget that we were discussing whether or not the bulk of gamers are over 30, not what the average age of all gamers is. I already explained how the average and bulk are mathematically two separate concepts and why the average will always be much higher than the bulk.

Lastly, the reason the bulk of gamers continue to be younger than 26 even as older gamers grow up is because people over 30 tend to have children who play games too.

Nice article, i remember hooking up my first gaming console, it was Table Tennis or Pong don't remember the exact name, it was a big black box almost bigger than the first xbox, had two controllers attached to it (non removable) and no ability to change games. Screen was black with white bars and dots for the game. Ahh the memories. Later on I was given a clecovision and atari and a ton of games.

If it weren't for him and his "shining" example of patenting things that just didn't need to be patented then things might not be the mess they are today.

Not all patents suck, especially hardware ones, even though you happen to think they're obvious (40+ years after the fact). Besides, if you're going to make your entire existence out of inventing new things, what else do you have to cover your ass, when you need to pitch your ideas to potentially dozens of companies? Seems to me like an awesome use of the patent system, and why it's there in the first place.

Someone earlier in the thread kinda dissed him for not really contributing to the VG industry (like Nolan Bushnell did), but that's not fair, either. The path Baer chose in life is one where he invents new stuff, sells or licenses it, then moves on to invent other new stuff, and purposely *not* get bogged down in the corporate world. Obviously, he's just not a suit, and never caved into being one. Which is really cool.

And sure, the guy's got a bit of braggadocio going on, but sheesh... cut him some slack. I would, too, with that resume, and being 90+ years old, and being a bona fide "founding father" of what has become a multi-billion dollar global industry. Good for him.

" ... the bulk of the gaming community has largely forgotten about him."

Bulk of the gaming community under 30 years of age, that is. I wonder why so many who write tech these days assume that everyone was born when they were. Believe it or not, there are whole generations of people alive and kicking for whom things that happened in the 70's and 80's aren't archeological.

I'm sure that the bulk of the gaming community under 30 years IS the bulk of the gaming community. Most people 30 or over tend to have more important things to do with their time - i.e., raise kids to do their gaming for them.

"Despite railing against some of the trends in modern gaming, Baer also pushed back against some cultural commentators that seem to think video games are still for kids. These critics bristle at the idea of adult themes and sexual content in the medium. “The majority of video game players are now 35 and over,” Baer said. “The criticisms come mostly from a generation that never played a video game in their life.”"

-taken from the article

I'm 33, and I have been gaming since I was old enough to and will continue to until my heart no longer beats. There's very little more important to do with one's time than leisure- with the exception of earning the money that pays for leisure.

I'm 40 and started with an intellivision.

To think some folks grow up and stop having fun is a sad thought indeed.